Additive Manufacturing, 3D Printing or Rapid Prototyping is a technology for rapidly manufacturing 3D objects. 3D spatial data of an object is first captured using an image sensor, and then materials are stacked into a 3D object from points or planes via computer processing. In the prior art, when manufacturing a 3D object using the rapid prototyping method, 3D scanning and 3D printing are typically carried out separately by two mutually-independent apparatuses, thus a larger space is needed to accommodate both of the apparatuses, and this is inconvenient. However, to integrate 3D scanning and 3D printing into the same apparatus, the following problems need to be overcome: (1) because the necessary elements for 3D scanning and those for 3D printing apparatuses are quite different, a method is needed to configure those elements within a limited space (same apparatus). (2) the major goal for the 3D scanning apparatus with two image sensors in the prior art is to expand the scanning range; however, measurement errors for the scans increase as the angle between the two image sensors decreases; if the angle between two image sensors is increased so as to decrease the measurement errors, the distance between the two image sensors must be lengthened, which requires a larger space to house the image sensor. Therefore, the second problem is how to prevent the accuracy of the measurements from two image sensors from being restricted by the limited space. How to solve the problems above is a significant issue for one skilled in the art looking to find solutions and improvements.
In order to overcome the drawbacks in the prior art, a multifunctional 3D scanning and printing apparatus is disclosed. The particular design in the present invention not only solves the problems described above, but also is easy to implement. Thus, the present invention has utility for the industry.